60 On ihe Pollen of Floxtcrs. 



is impossible to mistake them : the male Willow tree sends most 

 of its pollen through the wood and pith by means of short 

 vessels, which I have already shown : but it is very difficult to 

 draw the pollen running within the anthers ; though take a 

 young flower of the male kind, and divide it, and it will be 

 viewed directly. I hardly know a specimen plainer or more 

 easily shown in the original, fig. 2. But there is one pecu- 

 liarity which distinguishes the Dioecious ; — the male plant is led 

 up by the spiral wire, fig. 13, the female by the line of life, 

 fig. 1 3 X : this is so universally the case, tliat in all plants of this 

 order, particularly the Crypiogamioy it is this that points 

 out the male plant: I have dissected an immense number to 

 trace the male and female flower, and invariably found this 

 vessel, and the male is the more easily discovered from its al- 

 ways possessing so much motion ; for in some plants it is ab- 

 solutely violent, as in most of the Cryptogamia: — but I shall 

 give a letter on this subject. Your obliged servant, 



Agnes Ibbetson, 



Description of the Plate. 



Fig. 1 . Male flower of the Willow. 



Fig. 2. Male flower of the Willow at an earlier stage, when 

 the pollen are entering the anthers at a a a a. 



Fig. 1 xaa. The tap root of the anther, with the first growth 

 of the pollen. 



Fig. 3, of the female flower of the Willow, with the heart of 

 the seeds entering the seed-vessel. 



Fig. 4. Pointing out the nectary in the male ddd, and the 

 length of the nectary in the female flower. 



Fig. 5. The exact interior shape of an oblong pollen, to 

 show how the interior box is made, and how the exterior 

 is formed to eject the oil. 



Fig. 5 aaax. A pollen ball: x the passage for the oil it 

 ejects; and if some water swims on the glass it will be 

 constantly seen to throw out a sort of pattern of oil. 



Fig. 6. The sort of screw which stops the new shoot. 



Fig. 6 X . The ball of the Melon or Goind, witli the in- 

 terior manner of ejecting the gray matter. 



Fig. 7. Pollen ball. 



Fig. 8 a a. Triangular ball with the oil vessels a a completed. 



Fig. 9. The filaments: fig. 9 aao, to show they are hollow. 



^^}S- -Kf/- 1'he filaments. 



Fig. 10 fr. Doiibic heart. 



Fig. 11. iStcm, with the pollen passing up. 



X. On 



